This was the second time the board had come together with this group of selected social entrepreneurs. The first time was last November in Geneva to participate in the First Social Entrepreneurs Summit, a three-day event. Each one of the men and women selected by the Foundation to be in this initial group had contributed in significant but quite different ways to ensuring that economic and social progress benefits poor and marginalized people. The participants include Fazle Abed, founder of BRAC (formerly, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) in Bangladesh; Gisèle Yitamben, founder of the Association for Support of the Woman Entrepreneur (ASAFE) in Cameroon; Marilena Lazzarini, the "Ralph Nader of Brazil" and founder of the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection (IDEC); Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year; Roy Prosterman, "the lawyer for the landless" and founder of the Rural Development Institute (RDI); and Mel Young, founder of the Big Issue in Scotland and the International Street Papers Network. At that summit, the board had listened in fascination to each one of them as they presented their accomplishments and continued struggles. "Imagine the transformation that could occur if these 41 social entrepreneurs were allowed to implement their initiatives in one single developing country", noted Mrs. Mbeki. "If I were a venture capitalist, I would provide funding for each one of these entrepreneurs," said Muhammad Yunus. "If I were a Hollywood producer, I would make a film to tell each one of their stories."

Coming up with one, two or three award winners was clearly going to be difficult. But the board did make one decision at the November summit. They decided to support the group's participation in the World Economic Forum's 2002 annual meeting in New York. The corporate and business leaders of the world had much to learn from these individuals. And, by being at the Forum, these social entrepreneurs would see their work elevated, legitimized, and perhaps even facilitated, especially in their own countries. So we in the Foundation Secretariat had to forgo plans for some "down time" after the intense activity of the November summit and get ready, in less than eight weeks, to welcome 41 social entrepreneurs to New York.

The first challenge was to manage their expectations. We spent a week writing a twelve-page document called "Getting Ready for the Annual Meeting: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs." Why do leaders from around the world come to the Forum's annual meeting? How do social entrepreneurs fit into this scene? What is the "vibe?" What should you bring? What should you not bring? (the answer to that last question is proposals for funding, posters or declarations). Then there was the issue of interpreters. At least ten of our social entrepreneurs spoke little or no English. But it is assumed that everyone who participates at the Forum speaks English! The Forum agreed to let our non-English speaking social entrepreneurs bring interpreters.

Through December and early January, we worked with the Forum staff to ensure that the social entrepreneurs were included in sessions relevant to their area of expertise. We also set up a separate session called "Come Meet Social Entrepreneurs" which was quickly so overbooked that we had to find a larger room to accommodate everyone that wanted to come.

To provide further support, we arranged for a pre-meeting with the whole group on the eve of the annual meeting. This one-day session was tremendously useful because it reconnected everyone after the November summit, the first time the entrepreneurs had ever met, and because being together at this larger-than-life event provided a comfort level that further bonded them as a "family." Later that evening, George Soros hosted a reception at the Open Society Institute in honor of the social entrepreneurs. It was a wonderful event, and the Schwab Foundation Board members were there to celebrate. The only downside was the New Yorker article that reported on the evening and focused on the fact that New York socialites were invited to a party where they knew no one. Social entrepreneurship was equated with charity and philanthropy--an ill-conceived comparison that we have tried, apparently without success, to debunk.

The next day, the entrepreneurs joined the fray of corporate and political leaders, media moguls and academic stars, and chose from the smorgasborg of plenaries, workshops and panels that have come to characterize the Forum's annual meetings. "I felt like Alice-in-Wonderland who fell down the rabbit hole of the World Economic Forum," Sara Horowitz of Working Today said to me. "It has been an amazing experience." Sara was elated, having just been introduced by Colin Powell to John Sweeney, the AFL-CIO leader she had been trying to meet for two years. Alice-in Wonderland stuff, for sure.

Sara's is one of many similar stories in the Schwab entrepreneur group. Fabio Rosa met the heads of seven of the world's largest energy companies and was able to explain how his low-cost solar energy model would save them millions. Leijla Radoncic of Bosnian Handicrafts bonded with the Grand Mufti, the most important Muslim religious leader in Bosnia. They agreed to work together to influence the Bosnian government to pass legislation facilitating the growth and strengthening of social enterprises such as hers. The three social entrepreneurs from India and the Indian business and political leaders present agreed to continue to work and build together on their return from New York.

David Bornstein, author of numerous books on social entrepreneurship, who participated for one day at the Forum's annual meeting, reported that the social entrepreneurs "perceived that the business community is serious about addressing social issues. For a number of them, this was something of a revelation. And it gave them an increased sense that business-social partnerships were possible and worth more of their energy investment."

But there were also frustrations. Much of the discussion at the annual meeting revolved around poverty, inequity, reaching the poor, incorporating technology in education, and so on. But, despite our best efforts, those with the solutions, the social entrepreneurs, were in the audience, not on the podium. Social entrepreneurs had difficulty finding the confidence to raise their voices and contribute from practical experience, to the session discussions. "I am a small Asian farmer," Takao Furuno shared with his other newfound friends, "we are being destroyed by some aspects of globalization. Here people have a lot of information about the situation, they analyze it and discuss it, but no one is actually feeling it every day the way Asian farmers do." Much work remains to be done to incorporate these views from the ground into the annual meeting discussions. Hopefully next year, when we will have more than eight weeks to plan, it will be different.

So--back to the Schwabs in the pub on the last day of the annual meeting. The Board had met formally again that morning, Klaus announced. "The Board believes that, rather than single out one, two or three of you and channel one million dollars to a few, we should dedicate the Foundation's resources to supporting all of you," Schwab continued. "Each of you is an amazing individual who has accomplished what others thought was impossible. All of you, and people like you who we have yet to identify, deserve to be supported." And that was why, if you happened to be wandering by the pub at the Inter-Continental Hotel on Monday afternoon, you would have heard enthusiastic cheers and whistles. Many of the entrepreneurs called it "a brilliant decision." "Any one of us would have felt badly if we had been singled out as a winner", said Joe Madiath of Gram Vikas in India. "Over the past three months we have built a strong community that has bonded and plans to do things together. To give any one of us an award would have been a strategic mistake. The money is much better invested in community-building, capacity-strengthening and resource mobilization."

Pamela Hartigan is Managing Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship